In a surprising escalation in the investigation surrounding City Hall, federal and New York City investigators are scrutinizing a security company formerly owned by Mayor Eric Adams’s chief public safety officer, sources told The Post on Saturday.
Both the U.S. Attorney's Office and the city's Bureau of Investigation are investigating City Safe Partners, a company owned by Phil Banks, a former deputy mayor for public safety.
The company won a $154 million contract in January to provide “emergency fire monitoring services” to the New York City Housing Authority. The New York Times reported.
Sheena Wright, Mayor Adams' first deputy mayor and the fiancée of Mayor Banks' brother, Schools Chancellor David, serves on the NYCHA board and voted to approve the emergency contract.
Law enforcement sources told The Post that the CitySafe contract is just one of many government contracts being reviewed as part of the ongoing investigation into the Adams administration, which includes at least four federal investigations.
Wright's role in approving the NYCHA deal is under investigation for possible wrongdoing, they added.
FBI agents searched the homes of Phil Banks and Wright on September 4th.
The federal government is focusing on whether Phil Banks steered city contracts to companies represented by a consulting firm run by another of Banks' brothers, Terence, which records show has won millions of dollars' worth of public contracts, officials said.
Federal agents are investigating a possible bribery scheme and have seized cellphones belonging to the three Banks brothers.
Before being appointed deputy mayor by Mayor Adams two years ago, Phil Banks had a long career with the NYPD, but abruptly retired as chief in 2014 amid a wide-ranging federal corruption investigation into police corruption.
Prosecutors identified Mr. Phillips as an unindicted co-conspirator, but he was never charged with wrongdoing.
Banks bought a stake in City Safe Partners in 2015 and joined the company's management team in 2018.
Winnie Greco, who was Adams's fundraising mastermind and later became his special adviser and head of Asia, was also once part of the company's management team.
In 2023, NYCHA was searching for a new security company to provide fire safety services, but in its search for a new company, it prioritized companies classified as minority- and women-owned businesses, an agency spokesperson told The New York Times.
City Safe was one of four companies that submitted a proposal.
The company was awarded a contract to provide up to 500 security guards to monitor fires at more than 150 public housing developments.
So far, the company has received $13.3 million out of the three-year contract.
City Safe had done little business with the city before Banks joined the Adams administration.
The security company was contracted by the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority to place unarmed guards in subway stations from 2017 until April this year, and for the past two years also to crack down on fare non-payment.
A City Safe representative told The Times that the company received $7.2 million from the deal.
The company also reportedly made $4,773 providing security for Park Service events in 2014.
Banks sold his stake in City Safe in July 2018, according to the company.
His lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, told The Times that his client had no long-standing ties to City Safe, which was originally set up as Overwatch Services LLC.
“Banks was with Overwatch for less than two years and left well before the contract you refer to was signed,” Brafman said.
At a separate event in Manhattan on Saturday, Adams, a former NYPD inspector, continued to insist the administration was following the law.
“Whatever our employees do, we will follow procedures,” Adams said.
“We follow the rules… that's our job.”
The DOI declined to comment, and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan did not return messages.
Sheena Wright's lawyer, Xavier R. Donaldson, declined to comment.
City Safe is now run by Soi-Ni Chan Siew, a former New York Police Department sergeant who worked for Banks for many years.
Additional reporting by Khristina Narizhnaya.
